America's Best Small Towns

America's 10 Best Small Towns

Great Barrington, Mass. -- Smithsonian magazine put this town at the top of the list because it "still evokes Grover's Corners, with its white-steepled churches and doughnut bakeries. But you don't have to live there to see that the town has changed, welcoming new immigrant groups and coming up with schemes like minting its own local currency to keep it vital."

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Great Barrington, Mass. -- Smithsonian magazine put this town at the top of the list because it "still evokes Grover's Corners, with its white-steepled churches and doughnut bakeries. But you don't have to live there to see that the town has changed, welcoming new immigrant groups and coming up with schemes like minting its own local currency to keep it vital."

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Taos, N.M. -- Pictured here is San Francisco de Asis Christian church in Rancho de Taos, just south of Taos, N.M.
Voted the second best small town in the country, Taos was chosen because of its "modern art, ancient history and counter culture in the luminous high desert," according to Smithsonian magazine.

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Red Bank, N.J. -- Red Bank, N.J. was chosen as the third best small town in the country for its booming arts and culture. In this town, which is filled with cafés, galleries, clubs and shops, "Willie Nelson sings and Basie swings in a riverfront town graced by Victoriana," according to Smithsonian magazine.

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Mill Valley, Calif. -- This bay area enclave was chosen as the fourth best small town in the country by Smithsonian magazine. One of the nation's wealthiest ZIP codes, Mill Valley is filled with shops, galleries, organic food restaurants and boats a cultural calendar of art and jazz festivals.

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Gig Harbor, Wash. -- This waterfront town was chosen by Smithsonian magazine as the fifth best small town in the country. Most people reach Gig Harbor by boat, but there's a lot more to the town than its marina, pictured above. The town is dotted with art galleries and gourmet restaurants that serve local wine.

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Durango, Colo. -- This town of 16,900 was chosen as the sixth best small town in the country. Durango has everything from mountain biking to skiing to rock climbing. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which opened in 1882, "still carries passengers 45 miles into the heart of the high San Juans, pulled by a coal-fired, steam-driven locomotive," according to Smithsonian magazine.

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Butler, Pa. -- Voted the seventh best small town in the country, Butler is considered an "old-time rural hub as down-to-earth as its most famous product—the Jeep," according to the Smithsonian magazine. It's located along a trail blazed by George Washington in 1753, and has its own baseball team, thriving downtown, community symphony, theater and barbershop chorus.

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Marfa, Texas -- The film No Country for Old Men was shot in this Texas town that was chosen as the eighth best small town in America. According to Smithsonian magazine, an "Our Town grant from the NEA is helping Marfa's not-for-profit Ballroom Foundation create the Drive-In, an open-air art space designed by the cutting-edge New York architectural firm MOS."

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Naples, Fl. -- This town was voted the ninth best small town in the country. According to Smithsonian magazine, even in the winter, "around the historic Naples pier [people are] catching mackerel, opening beach umbrellas and looking for treasure in the surf. Grandkids are building sand castles, pelicans are squawking and the Gulf of Mexico is smooth as far as the eye can see."

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America's 10 Best Small Towns

Staunton, Va. -- Voted the tenth best small town in America, Staunton is overflowing with culture. Cultural institutions include the Dixie Theater movie house, Mockingbird Roots Music Hall, Heifetz International Music Institute, the outdoor Oak Grove Theater and the American Shakespeare Center, housed in a landmark re-creation of London's Blackfriars Playhouse, according to Smithsonian magazine.